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    The Sparrow Sisters: A Novel
    The Sparrow Sisters: A Novel
    The Sparrow Sisters: A Novel
    Audiobook11 hours

    The Sparrow Sisters: A Novel

    Written by Ellen Herrick

    Narrated by Cassandra Campbell

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    “A haunting, magical, modern-day fairytale.  A feast for the senses.” —Sarah Addison Allen, New York Times bestselling author of First Frost

    With echoes of the alchemy of Practical Magic, the lushness of Saving CeeCee Honeycutt, and the darkly joyful wickedness of the Witches of Eastwick, Ellen Herrick’s debut novel spins an enchanting love story about a place where magic whispers just beneath the surface and almost anything is possible, if you aren’t afraid to listen.

    The Sparrow Sisters are as tightly woven into the seaside New England town of Granite Point as the wild sweet peas that climb the stone walls along the harbor. Sorrel, Nettie and Patience are as colorful as the beach plums on the dunes and as mysterious as the fog that rolls into town at dusk.

    Patience is the town healer and when a new doctor settles into Granite Point he brings with him a mystery so compelling that Patience is drawn to love him, even as she struggles to mend him. But when Patience Sparrow’s herbs and tinctures are believed to be implicated in a local tragedy, Granite Point is consumed by a long-buried fear—and its three hundred year old history resurfaces as a modern day witch-hunt threatens. The plants and flowers, fruit trees and high hedges begin to wither and die, and the entire town begins to fail; fishermen return to the harbor empty-handed, and blight descends on the old elms that line the lanes.

    It seems as if Patience and her town are lost until the women of Granite Point band together to save the Sparrow. As they gather, drawing strength from each other, will they be able to turn the tide and return life to Granite Point?

    The Sparrow Sisters is a beautiful, haunting, and thoroughly mesmerizing novel that will capture your imagination.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateSep 1, 2015
    ISBN9780062424877
    Author

    Ellen Herrick

    Ellen Herrick was a publishing professional in New York City until she and her husband moved to London for a brief stint; they returned nearly twenty years later with three children (her own, it must be said). She now divides her time between Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a small town on Cape Cod very much like Granite Point.

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    Reviews for The Sparrow Sisters

    4/5

    66 ratings38 reviews

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    • 1/5
      When I read the premise for this book I don't remember reading the references to Practical Magic or the Witches of East End. If I had this would have excited me more about reading this book. Now, that I have seen these references and experienced attempting to read this book, I am saddened. This is because this book was nothing like either of these references. I watched Practical Magic and found it charming, funny, and the sisters shared a great bond. Than there is the Witches of East End. I liked the books way better then the television series. It seems a bunch of other viewers felt the same way as the series was cancelled. However again with that series the family shared a strong bond and there was plenty of action to keep things intriguing. The problem with this book is that I felt no strong connection with the Sparrow Sisters. Also, the tone of this book was monotone and I could only read a few pages at a time as I would get sleepy. Even when Patience got mad I felt nothing. I only got six chapters into this book and put it down.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      This started off strong, and as others have noted, had the feeling of an Alice Hoffman or Sarah Addison Allen novel. For me, the magic didn't sustain, though. I read through because I was a fair ways into the novel, and wanted to see how the author dug out from the oppressive sadness created. She did, but the enchantment for me had faded. Still it was a decent enough read, and an interesting twist on a certain type of magic in life. There were hints at the end of a sequel.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      Missed connections, things unsaid, a note never delivered........all these were to blame for the separation of two sisters over a liftime. Two sisters who were so close when they were young, losing their mother at an early age and having no one but each other, and then being separated by circumstances unknown to each other. A heartbreaking novel that leaves you wondering why this couldn't have turned out differently.
    • 4/5
      What you don’t know about another person is often more important than what you do know. The new doctor, Henry Carlyle, had secrets. In a small town like Granite Point, the community started gathering stories, some true some not. The Sparrow sisters, even though they’ve lived there all their lives, heralded a bit of mystery as well. Most wondered why none of them had ever married. They’d had some tragedy in their lives. Their mother died when young Impatience (Patience) was born. Their father took to himself, leaving the twin older girls to raise the two younger ones. Then one of the twins had been diagnosed with cancer and could not be saved. They had little tolerance for doctors. But, Patience found something very intriguing about this new doctor. He felt the attraction too, but he didn’t move to Granite Point to get involved with anyone, much less a romance.Patience found that she could make many remedies from their lush garden. Many of the townspeople looked to her for healing. Even Henry became very interested in what she actually does. It all seemed fairly benign. That is until the day that an autistic child dies after having received one of her remedies. How quickly people can turn.Uniquely crafted, these characters will pull your heartstrings. This is a very cozy and comfortable ‘stay-in-your-pjs’ day read. It’s hard to believe this is Ellen Herrick’s debut novel. She certainly has a magic of her own in writing very descriptive and beautiful scenes. The novel is well balanced with character detail, dialogue, and narrative. The ending just may suggest a series, and if so, I would like to visit the Sparrow sisters once again. Rating: 4 out of 5.
    • 4/5
      If you're a fan of Alice Hoffman's Practical Magic (and who isn't - 25th anniversary this year!), you'll enjoy this novel set on Cape Cod. Three sisters live together in a lobstering village settled by their ancestors and run a nursery with flowers and plants that bloom exorbitantly and frequently off-season. When Henry, a new young doctor and Iraq war medic, settles in town, he is fascinated by Patience, the youngest sister, but when a tragic death occurs and the town blames her, he wavers about being in her corner. This is a good beach read, a bit wispy but the writing holds up as does the reader's interest.
    • 5/5
      I received this as a giveaway in exchange for a review. Having read this, I would definitely buy this book as a gift for others! Herrick's story is very appealing from the setting and characters to the mood and plot. One of my favorite parts is seeing how the sisters' emotions affected the garden and the weather. I use the word "seeing" on purpose because the plants and weather were also vividly described characters. Definitely a great read!
    • 4/5
      I've read through the three previous reviews of this book on LT. My first thought was that all of them applied. The book is story that has been told. It covers subject matters that are pretty predictable. The Sparrow sisters are nothing new to literature. What one has to keep in mind when trying to critique a book is the fact that though these subjects may be "old hat" to heavy readers, new readers are introduced to the joy of the novel every day. This book is nicely written, time place and characters are all made real by Ellen Herrick's prose. The story contained a bit of mystery, a little romance and enough magic realism to be intriguing to many readers. I worked in bookstores for many years and as I was reading this I could picture exactly which customers I could recommend this title to. There were plenty who came to mind. Ellen Herrick is kind of a Berg, Hoffman, Weiner mix up. If you enjoy these authors you will like this book. Ms. Herrick deserves credit for putting together a story that is entertaining and sure to please a certain audience. We read so as to grow......The Sparrow Sisters is a great stepping stone to that end.
    • 5/5
      This is another one that I'm glad I won from Early Reviewers. The story follows several generations of women starting with sisters Bertie and Mable, who through misunderstanding and terrible circumstance, lose each other. Very good first book, kept my interest all the way through!
    • 4/5
      Nancy Jensen's The Sisters follows three generations of sisters beginning in the Depression era west with teens Mabel and Bertie. Their childhood is cut short by the mother's death and their step-father's advances. Their individual escapes differ as greatly as the lives they and their daughters go on to lead. Each of the women live lives punctuated be jealousy, mistrust, and regret. Jensen accurately follows the trends and atittudes of the historical eras in which her characters live, flowing seamlessly from the Depression and Vietnam and through such taboo issues as divorce and adoption. A wonderful debut novel.
    • 3/5
      This is one of those stories where, when you think things just can't get worse, sure enough they do. It all begins with a terrible misunderstanding and everything goes dowhill from there. There are two sisters and an evil step father. In older sister Mabel's effort to spare her younger sister Bertie from that father's molestation, Mabel sets off a chain of events that never can be fixed. From 1927 until the present, we follow generations of a family of unfortunate women who are unable or unwilling to communicate with one another. Most of those women are not very sympathetic and some are downright unlikeable. Some -- a daughter who makes jewelry and chain mail and lives with a psychologically scarred VietNam veteran, for example -- are difficult to understand. About halfway through the book, we begin dropping in on the characters wherever they happen to be in their lives. One is a judge who must decide a child custody case; this has ramifications beyond her legal ruling and Jensen has to catch us up on all of those. It seemed as if this woman's story might have been expanded into a novel of its own. At times in this debut novel, Jensen writes beautifully and that is the book's saving grace. But it is difficult to get past the series of terrible things that happen; while reading this, one is constantly worried about what disaster lies on the next page. There is often an urge to take one or another of the characters by the shoulders and shake her into being sensible.
    • 4/5
      This was such a surprise, like a summer gift from the gardens, I won this as an early review and so happy this is what I picked that month! The back page had said if you enjoyed the book, The Language of Flowers, then this was another winner. Truth be told, that book was not one of my favorites but this book never let me down. I loved the stories told of remedies and flowers that all grew too well, why not dream right? Looking out at my gardens as I read and twisting and turning to see how it all ends. I won't give away the ending but look forward to more by Ellen Herrick, hopefully soon!!
    • 5/5
      I loved this book! I was sorry when it ended.
    • 4/5
      This novel covers a lot of ground, telling the story of the Fischer sisters, Mabel and Bertie, beginning in 1927, and ending in 2007. It is a tragic story, full of violence, sacrifice, good intentions and misunderstandings. Mabel does her best to protect her younger sister Bertie from their abusive stepfather after their mother dies in childbirth. Things don't go as planned, and Mabel and Bertie end up estranged. What follows are their individual stories: marriages, pregnancies, raising children, building careers. Mabel and Bertie's stories are interesting, but I do wish we had seen more of Mabel and her daughter Daisy's lives. They seem to have gotten shorter shrift than Bertie and her daughters and granddaughters. Bertie becomes closed-off after believing her sister abandoned her, and although she finds the love of a good man, she is never really happy. Her character is reminiscent of Elizabeth's Stout's Olive Kitteridge, and fans of that book will like The Sisters.The theme of the book is that you really don't know what has happened in someone's life that makes her the person she becomes. Bertie says, "Something can happen to change your life so sudden, you can't ever get over it fast enough. And so you do things that you wouldn't have ever thought of doing. Maybe hurt other people. And that changes things for them, too, all in a line". Bertie compares what happened to her the same thing as going through a war. What she doesn't know is that Mabel ended up becoming famous for photographing soldiers before going to war and upon their return, so the war theme applies to both of them.I do think that this book makes you empathetic to people in your life; you realize that you don't know everything that has happened to a person that affects her. Many people who read this book may come to the conclusion that their parents did the best job they could, as children in the book eventually learn. Mothers hurt their children, unintentionally or not, and they in turn hurt their children. I think the author believes that it is time to forgive and move on to break the chain of hurt.The Sisters is sad book, and I find violence against children and women hard to read. There are a few scenes that will cause you to gasp. If you are depressed, this book may make that worse, but if you want to learn about the human condition, this is an emotionally cathartic novel.
    • 3/5
      This is a story of sisters who are separated by events that are misconstrued and cause irreparable damage to their relationship. The book is well written and holds the reader's interest from beginning to end. For readers who enjoy stories of families and all that is involved in the history of the generations, I recommend this book.
    • 4/5
      This novel follows one family through four generations, from the very early 1900's to the end of the 20th Century. An estrangement between two sisters occurs very early in the book and influences the lives of subsequent generations in sad and unpredictable ways.
    • 4/5
      These sisters, and their female descendants, cannot catch a break. Bad luck in the form of sexual abuse, poor choice of husband and sexual partners, misunderstandings and miscommunications, and so forth. The original two sisters are separated when they are teenagers because of a tragedy, and one of them disappears and stays lost on purpose.An essential part of the book is the genealogical chart in the beginning - without it, keeping track of the many descendants would be impossible. The chapters skip years and narrators, so careful attention to the details is needed.Fortunately the characters and their situations are all interesting, and the writing is excellent, so as a reader I was captivated enough to keep track of the complicated events and numerous characters.Of course, I wanted a happier ending, but I cannot argue with the author's decisions.
    • 5/5
      Lovely, magical rea!ism, plants and love, with a mystery to boot. I loved this oǹe, reminiscent of alice hoffmans practical magic.
    • 4/5
      It’s a good book that had me riveted starting midway through. The beginning was a bit too predictable but got a lot better as I stuck with it. A lot of suspense and magic woven through it.
    • 5/5
      This is an epic family saga, covering three generations of women. Early in the twentieth century sisters Mabel and Bertie fight poverty and their stepfather's sexual advances in rural Kentucky. Elder sister Mabel makes a daring plan for the sisters' escape from their stepfather's violence. An accidentally missed message creates disastrous consequences, consequences that will reshape life for generations of women. The story of Mabel and Bertie, their daughters and their granddaughters, sucked me in and kept me interested to the end. Jensen provides an interesting and fast-moving plot. I did find it sometimes difficult to understand Bertie's absolutely refusal to communicate with her sister. Her obstinacy has grave consequences, and it's hard for me to imagine behaving in the same way. At the end I found Bertie and Mabel and their generation to be the most interesting. All in all, an engaging book and well worth reading.
    • 3/5
      Okay, but read Practical Magic instead.
    • 3/5
      The story of three generations of American women. Bertie and Mabel are sisters. It is 1927, their mother is dead and their father is to them a threatening presence.Mabel does not want what has happened to her to happen to sister Bertie so she sets up an elaborate escape scheme with Bertie's boyfriend that has profound repercussions and results in the separation of the sisters. The book then takes us on a journey through the lives of their children and grandchildren and we see how what happened to Bertie and Mabel impacts on their lives.
    • 4/5
      Granite Point is the typical New England small town with three exceptions: The Sparrow Sisters. Sorrel, Nettie and Patience, named after flowers and sometimes acting like them are well known. Healers, gardeners, lovers and, maybe murderers.A young doctor comes to town and is put out that his potential patients prefer to go the Sisters instead of his office. After all, they don’t know him. Plus, you can tell Patience’ humor by her scent. Bee balm, lemon, gardenia.Each sister has her own tale of passion unlived. Sorrel is in love but he married another. Nettie is in love but he won’t give her the time of day. Patience loves everyone which does her no good at all.When something happens in the little town the friends become enemies. The enemies become hunters of witches. It seem the only thing the Sparrow Sisters can do it lay down and give in. Or do they?This was a rather good story but not as good as I had hoped. I think I was going for another Distant Hours which could never be. On it’s own the characters pop out and you can feel Sorrel and Nettie’s sadness at being alone.
    • 4/5
      ”Whatever we carry inside us shapes everyone we touch.”The Sisters, young teens growing up in 1920s Kentucky, are suddenly separated. Hurried decisions and misunderstandings hem them in to lives they would not have chosen. Yet time marches on, and they go on to have daughters and grand-daughters of their own, each of them coming in to her own kind of strength, though none of them really understanding the other. ”They had all been raised up on secrets, things never expressed but linked through time to all the other members. . . . the tangled secrets and what they had wrought.”Reading this story was to be carried along on a river of pain and poignancy, hoping for something around the next bend, not finding it, and still being swept along with hope filling your sail. Making something with what you have - it’s all any of us can do. Watching these women make their lives was an emotional reading experience. The characters, setting and story are full and nuanced; a well written first novel.
    • 1/5
      The only thing that would make this book any good in my opinion, is if someone were to enter it and kill every last one of these dumb chicks and put them out of their misery.Dumb chick #1: Mabel. Mabel sacrifices her body to save her younger sister. She allows her step father to sexually molest her night after night and then...here's what she does: she runs away with her sister's boyfriend. Nice, huh? just leaves a note saying she's run off with him and somehow she expects her sister to figure out the reason for it and follow them? Stupidness. Later, Dumb Chick #1 steals a girl out of an abusive household and thinks it's her daughter. WTF?Dumb chick #2: Bertie. Instead of making something of herself, she marries at 14 and lives a miserable life. She can't even make the most of that.. she transfers her misery and bitterness onto her daughters.Dumb chick #3: Alma. Alma gets "above herself" and I guess dumbness runs in the family cause like her mother, she marries the first bloke to come along and has a little boy that she allows to slap her. She's a doormat for her husband, son, and her mother in law. Dumb chick #4: Rainey. Rainey just plain likes sex. She's a tramp who gets knocked up ASAP and has two daughters with two different men and never thinks of the consequences of her actions. Dumb chick #5: Lynn. She's a stupid little girl who lusts for her daddy even after he throws her in a lake and nearly lets her drown. She ends up strapped down to a bed cause she's a fruitcake. And I stopped there. I don't see the point to a book like this. It's not entertaining, heartwarming, funny, inspirational, or educational. It's just a bunch of dumb, submissive chicks making dumb choices, hooking up with mostly abusive and dumb men, and breeding more abusive men or dumb chicks. The end.
    • 4/5
      I liked this a lot but unfortunately I was listening to the CD version and had to break up my listening times over a couple of weeks and I really had trouble keeping track of who was who as the families of the sisters evolved over time. Yes, certainly I could follow what was happening but I wished I had a little family tree to refer to! The ending, although somewhat expected, answered some earlier questions. A fascinating look at families over time, through generations. I particularly like and agree with what LukeS reviewer wrote (January, 2012) about how each of the women involved in the story, in each generation, seemed to have some sort of secret that she kept to prevent harm but keeping that secret managed to do more harm then good.
    • 5/5
      The Sparrow Sisters is a book far removed from the books I usually choose to read. It’s full of all of the things I really don’t like in stories; modern settings, boy meets girl/girl doesn’t like boy/yet love is in the air romance, and that new term in storytelling, magical realism. And yet I was enthralled. The titular sisters are all single and live in Granite Point a New England town with a long history. Their ancestors were among the founders of the town. Now the three of them live in their ancestral house and run a flourishing nursery on land once owned by a very special woman from their past.All is going along well until a new doctor comes to town and questions one of the sisters’ way of helping the townspeople. Patience has always had a way with plants and she uses her knowledge and that of her ancestors to ease some of the complaints they bring her. The doctor, Henry feels this is dangerous – but even more dangerous are the sparks that fly between the two of them. When someone under Patience’s care dies the small town turns against her and history ends up repeating itself with a modern day witch hunt of sorts.You cannot read this book and expect it to make sense or for everything to align. You need to just release yourself to the story and let it happen. If I were to sit and pick it apart I’d find a million reasons to hate this book but if I take reason out of the equation I want to go back and read it again. It’s a real escapist tale – but don’t let that make you think it’s all unicorns and rainbows because it’s not. The worst of human nature takes a starring role. But the best of human nature has equal billing. The characters are unique and I really want to visit with them again and I truly hope the teaser at the end means there will be another book.
    • 3/5
      I received this as part of LibraryThing's Early Reviewers. I really enjoyed this one. It reminded me a lot of the way Alice Hoffman writes (LOVE her), so I'm happy to have a new author in that vein. I found the each character appealing in their own way and found it refreshing that each had their own flaws and idiosyncrasies. I enjoyed all the quirky little details!
    • 4/5
      I received this book in exchange for an honest review. I LOVED this story! This is one of the best books that I have read in a while. I have not read a story that elicited so many emotions in a very long time. The characters captured my heart, as well as the story. The characters were so real to life, and their dialogue was so believable that I could just picture these characters so easily. I am eagerly awaiting the next Sparrow Sisters novel. There were a few grammatical errors, but in no way did they hinder the flow of this story. If it weren't for these errors, this would have easily been a five star review. Since LibraryThing doesn't allow half stars, I had to give this book four stars, but my rating is actually four and a half stars for this incredible tale. I highly recommend this book.
    • 3/5
      What a wonderful novel for a few rainy days! Ellen Herrick presents the enchanting Sparrow sisters: Sorrel, Nettie, and Patience; and the mischief begins. Again years with the old doctor, and very few outsiders, a young, new doctor enters town. Henry Carlyle's appearance sets off a disturbing chain of events within the New England town of Granite Point. Herrick conjures a town trying to enter the 21st century, but still based in the 1600's superstitions. Patience reigns as the center of the story, but other characters surround her. Ben, madly in love with Nettie, serves as a Greek chorus whispering the history of the Sparrow sisters and the town of Granite Point. Ellen Herrick presents a bewitching introduction to the story, and ends with a hint of more to come.
    • 2/5
      I picked up The Sparrow Sisters with some pretty lofty expectations and I suppose I kind of set myself up for failure there. Being that I’ve ran through Sarah Addison Allen’s library, I’m always looking for new magical realism stories but they seem few and far between. This being compared to SAA as well as Practical Magic had me switching this to all signs point to yes. Unfortunately this was nothing but a disappointment and the magical realism tidbits just didn’t do it for me.There are two parts to this story, but neither actually work. First, this is the story of the Sparrow sisters and how their family came to live in the town for generations upon generations. They’re known for being a little quirky but they’ve simply just become a fixture of the town and their strangeness is simply “accepted”. They keep to themselves, all living together in their family home until a new doctor comes to town who becomes instantly interested in the youngest Sparrow sister, Patience, for absolutely no reason at all. Second part of the story is the attempt at providing some semblance of a point, so there’s a bit of a pseudo-mystery, some moral conundrums, and all around pointlessness. See, Patience Sparrow is known for her herbology remedies via the use of herbs from the family nursery. She seems to have a bit of a gift that’s been seemingly passed down from her family and she’s used it to help treat the townsfolk for years on anything from morning sickness to sleeplessness. When a local tragedy occurs, all signs point to Patience’s involvement just out of sheer negligence because of a misuse of herbs.Patience and the good doctor Henry Carlyle are first introduced and immediately butt heads. Naturally, because we’re all adults here, Henry immediately falls for her prickly nature and insists on getting to know her. The two lack any sort of emotional spark and their attraction to one another remains completely hazy especially with their differing opinions on medicines and treatments. Henry has a secure position on his high horse while he rants and raves about Patience needing to send her patients to a “real doctor”. This is where the moral conundrums are in play.“Look, you don’t expect me to stand back and let you treat a potentially sick child without some kind of conventional” – Henry emphasized the word – “medical participation?”High horse. I told you. Henry would go on and on about the possible dangers of what she was doing and how her herbal remedies were going to hurt people someday. So, the books stance is natural remedies are evil and you shouldn’t trust them and just go to a “real doctor” instead. From personal experience, I never went to a “real” doctor when I was a kid and was raised on homeopathatic (note, different than herbology) remedies. I felt that Henry’s stance on what “proper treatments” are and his constant ranting about “real doctors” was entirely unjustified and encompassed far too much of the book. What made it all the more worse was before Henry, Patience was secure in her knowledge and belief of the good she was doing. Enter Henry and suddenly she’s filled with doubt and regret for her negligence. Please. Taking all the good she did and transforming her into a “witch” was only the next logical step, of course.‘One look at the inscription on the band shell was enough to remind everyone in Granite Point how long it had been since panic seized the town, and how fast it had nearly destroyed it. If there was to be another witch hunt, it certainly had a strong start.’ Yes, because all that was missing was a modern day witch-hunt. The story continued unraveling. In addition to the story/plot itself, the writing felt incredibly stilted. There were some beautifully described scenes and I loved the portrayal of the small New England town, however, it lacked conviction. And good news? This is NATURALLY the start of a potential series.